Nommo to publish again after two-quarter hiatus
By Emily Inouye
Feb. 10, 2005 9:00 p.m.
Nommo, which means “the power of the word” in the
Dogon language, is the black community’s newsmagazine at
UCLA.
Absent from the campus for the past several months, it will be
distributing its first issue next week on Feb. 16, and its new
staff is excited for its reentry into the journalism world.
Nommo, like other newsmagazines at UCLA, faces a variety of
struggles in maintaining a regular publication schedule, problems
that range from financial trouble to internal struggles. But after
two quarters, Nommo has returned.
“Nommo is really the Pan-African paper for the liberation
movement of the whole African continent and the African
diaspora,” said Wanuri Kahiu, a fourth-year film graduate
student and Nommo’s new managing editor. “It is a kind
of forum for reunification.”
This quarter Nommo has undergone a changing of the guard in its
staff, which has led to a burst of activity and excitement over the
publication, Kahiu said.
M.K. Asante, Jr., a first-year graduate student working toward
his master’s of fine arts in screen writing, was hired as the
new editor-in-chief of the newsmagazine this quarter and came to
Nommo both with a history and knowledge of the production and
publishing world.
Asante has extensive experience in both writing and publishing
with every medium from column writing to poetry to screen
writing.
“Nommo makes me very proud,” Asante said. “The
fight against racism is fought on many fronts … one of them is
media, and Nommo is a voice for issues not covered in the L.A.
Times.”
Since the start of this quarter, work has been progressing
quickly to put out Nommo’s first issue in two quarters.
Asante said more content than could appear in the first issue
was submitted, a welcome problem in the publishing business.
But in the past, Nommo has had its share of trouble, though it
was not for lack of writers.
Two quarters ago in the spring of last year, publication was
interrupted by tragic circumstances within the staff. Charles
Gross, then a third-year political science and African studies
student and assistant editor at Nommo, was shot in an altercation
with a neighbor.
Fortunately Gross recovered from the incident, but the trauma
involved affected both him and his girlfriend, Genevieve Richards,
who was the editor of Nommo.
Last quarter, Nommo had a new editor, Sheldon Ross. But when it
was found that Ross was not enrolled as a student, he was not
allowed to continue in his position as editor-in-chief.
“You have to be a student at the time of the check,”
said Arvli Ward, student media director.
Nommo is not the only newsmagazine that has been interrupted in
its publishing on a regular basis.
La Gente de Aztlan did not publish last quarter but had an issue
come out this week on Feb. 9. The magazine did not print last
quarter because of financial reasons and other internal
difficulties.
“La Gente provides a space for the Chicana/o Latina/o
American voice,” said Monica Sandoval Perez, a fourth-year
Latin American studies student and the editor-in-chief.
But Perez had a somewhat different version of what La Gente
represented in terms of the specifics of the magazine.
“There were conflicting views the older generation of
staff and myself,” Perez said. “We have a very diverse
Latino community, we want to bridge these gaps between
organizations on campus.”
The other difficulty at La Gente was generating enough
advertising revenue to cover printing costs.
Ward said the newsmagazines are a branch of Student Media at
UCLA, which covers the stipends and operating costs of the staff,
but the publications are each still responsible for paying the cost
of printing. Each of the newsmagazines at UCLA are nonprofit
organizations that distribute their publications for free.
Jenn Chou, a third-year communications students and the
editor-in-chief of Fem, a newsmagazine targeting the feminist
community, said that generating revenue is always a challenge. Last
quarter Fem generated only $455 of their $1500 publishing money
goal, so they had to drastically cut the size of their publication,
which came out first week of winter quarter.
“It definitely puts a damper on things when you are always
worrying about money,” Chou said.
Al-Talib, a newsmagazine geared toward the Muslim population, is
the only publication that has found it easy to publish
consistently, at least in terms of funding. Its steady income stems
from its large community and constituent base, as it has a
distribution of about 20,000, said Jameelah Shukri, a fourth-year
history student and business manager for Al-Talib.
Nommo is currently working to build up its readership and
support by renewing connections with various campus groups and
organizations.
“We have a beautiful renewal of vows between the African
Student Union and Nommo,” Asante said. “Nommo is our
voice.”
